Most every girl dreams about her wedding dress and what her wedding day will be like. Often times, Hollywood makes the wedding and the entire process out to be some big fantasy, so exciting and yet often dramatic. Finding my perfect wedding dress was very anti-climactic compared to the Hollywood versions.
After the proposal by an amazing man, immediate planning commenced. I thought I would be like some military General planning a strategic military operation. After the first month, I realized that the planning was a lot easier than I realized and though there were many details, I had it all under control. One of the biggest earmarks of planning was finding the perfect wedding dress.
I discovered that I wanted an A-line type dress with lots of flowy and gauzy fabric and lace. Nothing too extravagant and I didn’t want a “princess” looking dress. After scouring quite a few bridal magazines, I had an idea of what I wanted. I planned a perfect day with my mom, my two sisters and one of my good friends.
When we entered the wedding dress shop, I didn’t feel excitement but more dread and nervousness. What if I didn’t find what I was looking for? I didn’t want to have to try on a million dresses in front of nosy busy-body women. I suddenly wondered if I shaved my legs and was wearing appropriate undergarments.
The lady assigned to help me was extremely nice and patient. I looked through books and showed her pictures of what I was looking for and she chose several dresses for me to try on. I tried on the first one and looked in the mirror. I didn’t have any feelings of euphoria or feel light headed. I didn’t feel like crying and wondered if I was supposed to if I found “the one”. My mom and the girls hemmed and hawed for a moment and remained fairly silent. I knew that first dress wasn’t the one.
After repeating this four or five times, I started to feel frustrated and tired. Who knew that wedding dresses weighed a ton and took two people to put on, not to mention 20 minutes to put on and fit? Down to one of the last dresses, the bridal attendant helped me into the dress. I didn’t even bother to look in the mirror in the dressing room but just immediately turned around and strutted out to show the girls. I saw the change in expression and the tears in my mom’s eyes. I turned and looked at myself and knew this was the dress for me. Everything around me just seemed to disappear and all I could see was myself in this beautiful dress.
I felt like an outside observer looking on some girl in a beautiful dress. It was a little like an out of body experience. After a few moments, my surroundings came back and I just knew this was the one. I became excited and even felt exhilarated. I hardly even noticed the seamstress coming to fine tune the dress to fit just perfectly.
The experience of finding the perfect dress was far less dramatic and fantastic than I thought it would be, however, it was still something special to share with the my family and friends in my life. The experience will be something I remember forever and yet, it is one experience that I am glad I don’t have to repeat.